A Very Illicit Item Was a Happy Meal Secret Side Order Until Undercover Cops Busted the Operation

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Until Wednesday, if you wanted some heroin while hanging out in the Pittsburgh area, you didn’t have to frequent shady street corners or dangerous dealers.

All you had to do was head to a McDonald’s and order a Happy Meal.

Allegheny County detectives arrested an employee of a fast-food chain in East Liberty on Wednesday when police said she gave undercover officers a Happy Meal box containing 10 stamp bags of heroin, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Heroin sits in top right corner of Happy Meal box. (Image source: WTAE-TV)

ShanTia Dennis, 26, of East Pittsburgh was awaiting arraignment in jail on charges of possession of an illegal substance, possession with intent to deliver and delivery. Dennis denied wrongdoing to reporters as she was being led away in handcuffs, according to the Associated Press.

ShanTia Dennis (Image source: WTAE-TV)

The process for securing the heroin was fairly simple. Turns out that all the undercover cops need to do was utter a password phrase at the drive-thru — “I’d like to order a toy” — and the heroin was placed into the Happy Meal box.

According to WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, the police paid $2 for the toy, which they said Dennis placed into the register, and $80 for the heroin, which police said she stuffed into her bra. Police recovered 10 stamp bags inside the Happy Meal box and 50 stamp bags from Dennis, according to the Tribune-Review.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., said an informant alerted authorities that heroin was being sold by a McDonald’s employee, the Tribune-Review reported.

Authorities said the heroin recovered Wednesday does not appear to be related to the heroin laced with fentanyl — a narcotic pain reliever — blamed for 22 overdose deaths in southwestern Pennsylvania, the AP reported.

Manko added to the Tribune-Review that the McDonald’s in East Liberty is owned by the same person who owns another area McDonald’s in Murrysville, where police arrested a man this year for selling heroin from the restaurant.

Authorities said they are investigating whether the owner knew about the drug dealing at his businesses. He has not been charged, the Tribune-Review reported.